Southern California -- this just in

O.C. man accused of attempting to kill infant son

October 21, 2011 | 2:50
pm

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details.

An Orange County man was charged Friday with attempting to murder his 2-month-old son after he was captured on a hidden camera swinging him by the neck with a noose-like blanket and repeatedly punching and shaking the baby, prosecutors say.

Joshua Robey, 24, is charged with one felony count each of attempted murder, torture and child abuse. Robey lived on and off with his girlfriend and her mother in Anaheim until three weeks before the Oct. 18 incident, when he began living in a motel in Costa Mesa.

Robey went to his girlfriend's home to babysit his son. Without Robey's knowledge, his girlfriend set up a hidden camera in the home to record him because she believed he was cheating.

Robey is accused of violently abusing and attempting to "murder the infant" while alone with him. Robey wrapped a blanket around the baby’s neck, picked him up by lifting the ends of the blanket like a noose and swung the boy around for more than a minute, prosecutors say.

According to prosecutors, Robey laid the child back down and punched him several times in the chest with closed fists. He is accused of slapping and punching the baby and grabbing the boy by the throat with both hands, lifting him in the air and violently shaking him.

At one point while the child was crying, Robey covered the baby's mouth with his hand, grabbing him by the neck and shaking him in the air, prosecutors say. He is accused of attempting to suffocate his son by covering the victim's face with a blanket and covering the baby's mouth with his hand for several seconds, according to prosecutors.

The baby's mother discovered the alleged abuse the next morning when she watched the video on the hidden camera. The girlfriend’s mother learned of the video that afternoon and took the baby to the hospital. Hospital staff contacted Anaheim police.

Robey was arrested at the motel that day. His son remains in the hospital, and the extent of his injuries is unknown at this time, prosecutors said. If convicted of all the charges, Robey faces up to 15 years in prison. He is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

[For the record: 9:10 p.m. Oct. 21: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Robey was a Santa Ana resident. It also said he was arrested at a motel in that city. The motel is in Costa Mesa.]